Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. My chest is tight and my breathing shallow as I await any communication from HETI. Yet this email account does not belong to me. I am signed into my fiancés account, awaiting an email which will affect not only him, but also my country, my career and inevitably determine where I end up.

I was born in Australia and went to medical school in Australia and am now working as an intern in an Australian hospital. How did things become so complex? I …

There are two reasons it took me this long to post this up, when Lord only knows I’ve been complaining for a long time.

Firstly, I’m about as comfortable with technology as a monkey is with calculus. I literally had to ask a friend to walk me through how to navigate this site, clicky by clicky.

Secondly, every time I try to contemplate a future anywhere but here, it makes me really nervous and upset, and I place it squarely in the Too Hard basket.

See, this is …

My name is Tuan Tran, and I came from UNSW, Rural Clinical School of Wagga Wagga. I came to Australia on 2001 as a young high school student. I still remember the first day in an Australian high school, young, shy and got no idea what is going on. I guess the first day for med school was kind of similar, young, perhaps less shy but certainly still have no idea what is going on. 10 years was a long journey for me in Australia. …

The phone rings, I tense up. It’s late at night so I know that it will have to be my parents calling me from back home and yet I do not rush to take the call. I compose myself; take a deep breath and answer. “Hi Kanna, (a Tamil term of endearment) how are you…” says my mother as our daily conversation begins.

We exchange pleasantries, discuss the usual mundane happenings of our day, however recently, there are undercurrents; the sense that this genial exchange was …

As a 4th year international medical student at Monash University, the issues that MSAT are campaigning for are not only personally relevant, but will become all too real next year when I graduate. The study of medicine is a steep learning curve, not only in medical school, but for the rest of a doctor’s career.

The experience of internship will undoubtedly be a challenging one, though it saddens me that I may not have to opportunity to undertake this valuable experience. Two grim realities face not …

“Oh you doctor next year? Good good, when you be GP I come to you” the words of Mrs G one of the elderly Italian patients at my current clinical attachment. My clinical supervisor, her GP of the last 20 years, stepped in to explain to her that I won’t be getting a job cause I am an international student. Her expression changed to confusion, she couldn’t understand it. She berated my supervisor on how he can let this happen, “I wait two days to …

I’m a 6th year medical student from UNSW. Studying medicine in Australia has certainly been one of the biggest milestones in my life. I’ve learned so many things that I could not have learned if I stayed in Malaysia to do my medical degree. I’ve not only learned medical knowledge but also communication skills – something that I feel is essential with the borderless world of knowledge we now have.

Coming to Australia has also made me more independent and taught me survival skills that I …

I am a final year medical student from the University of Newcastle. It feels strange having to pack up 5 years of my life into boxes, without an internship offer in Australia, I’m basically preparing to go wherever my life takes me next year.

Some friends asked me if I were back in high school right now and had known about the internship crisis, would I still have spent hundreds and thousands in university fees to come to Australia to study. The immediate response that comes …

Hello everyone My name is Eileen and I am awaiting graduation from the University of New South Wales. I decided to share my story to support my international and local medical friends who have been faithfully campaigning for us.

My journey to Australia began 7 years ago, as part of ‘fulfilling the childhood dream of pursuing medicine.’ The twist was that I ended up in Australia, instead of the UK. Although I was initially upset, this has been the best mistake that ever happened. …